Court readies for Oscar day three testimony

Barry Roux, who has been leading Pistorius’s evidence, came in shortly after and made himself comfortable in a chair near the judge’s entrance.

Pistorius is accused of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on February 14 last year. He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

Dup de Bruyn, the lawyer representing the Steenkamp family, was in the first row of the public gallery, as was Darren Fresco, a friend who testified earlier in the trial.

The court’s public gallery filled up more slowly than it had on Monday and Tuesday, when Pistorius’s testimony caused even greater media interest in the case than usual.

Pistorius was still not in court by 9.15am, 15 minutes before the start of proceedings. He has usually arrived around 9am.

He is also charged with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act. He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.

On September 30, 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

– Sapa